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Esri Honors The Trust for Public Land with Making a Difference Award

July 23, 2012

San Diego

Today, The Trust for Public Land was awarded the 2012 Esri Making a Difference Award at the plenary session of Esri’s annual International User’s Conference in San Diego.

“This award reflects our philosophy that GIS can help make the world a better place,” said Jack Dangermond, Esri president. “The Trust for Public Land is an exemplary GIS practitioner and by Greenprinting conservation priorities through consensus in communities they have made a significant impact on the conservation of land across America. And most recently they have elevated the analysis of city park systems with their cutting-edge ParkScore project, which features a very user-friendly interface with GIS.”

The Esri Making a Difference award honors people or organizations that have used GIS to bring about meaningful change in the world. Recipients use GIS as a framework to understand problems and successfully meet important challenges. They are leaders that value collaboration and have a sense of shared responsibility for society or the environment.

“Esri is not only the industry leader in enabling GIS data services, but they are also a leading advocate for its impact on making the world a better place,” said Will Rogers, president of The Trust for Public Land. “We are grateful for the recognition. Esri has made delivery of our land-for-people conservation mission more powerful for the thousands of American communities we served over forty years.”

In 2012, The Trust for Public Land launched its ParkScore® project, the most comprehensive rating system ever developed to measure how well the 40 largest U.S. cities are meeting the need for parks. Using an advanced GIS model, ParkScore provides in-depth data to guide local park improvement efforts. ParkScore is online at parkscore.tpl.org and the web-based resource features U.S. demographic data provided by Esri. A recent study showed that Esri's demographic update methodologies produce the industry's most accurate demographic data.

“Our dynamic mapping technology identifies which neighborhoods and demographics are underserved by parks and how many people are able to reach a park within a ten-minute walk,” said Breece Robertson, The Trust for Public Land’s director of conservation vision. “Without Esri’s demographic data, ParkScore would not be nearly as effective in helping guide local park professionals with addressing system improvements.”

For more than a decade The Trust for Public Land has enhanced its conservation real estate expertise with Greenprinting, an award-winning, community-driven GIS planning service. Greenprinting provides a framework for communities to prioritize their parks and conservation goals and implement funding and land protection strategies. Using GIS in a transparent mapping and modeling process, Greenprinting engages local residents in a thoughtful, place-based planning exercise.

“With Greenprinting, the communities we work with have an informed and direct impact on the conservation choices they make,” said Robertson. “It is powerful to collaborate with your neighbors to make choices together that benefit the greater good. The depth and clout of the Esri mapping tools give citizens the real-time results of their input and a vision they can count on for the future.”

The Trust for Public Land is a national nonprofit land conservation organization that conserves land for people to enjoy as parks, gardens, and natural areas, ensuring livable communities for generations to come. Established in 1972, TPL has helped protect more than 3 million acres across the nation. The Trust for Public Land depends on the support and generosity of individuals, foundations, and businesses to achieve its land for people mission.

About EsriSince 1969, Esri has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in GIS technology, Esri software is used in more than 300,000 organizations worldwide including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. Esri applications, running on more than one million desktops and thousands of web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the world's mapping and spatial analysis. Esri is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms.

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Working from more than 30 offices nationwide, The Trust for Public Land offers a range of services to meet the conservation needs of the 21st century. We help communities raise funds, conduct research and planning, acquire and protect land, and design and renovate parks, playgrounds, trails, and gardens.